Aloysius Gonzaga

Aloysius Gonzaga (9 March 1568-21 June 1591) was an Italian aristocrat and Jesuit who died as the result of caring for victims of a serious epidemic during his studies at the Roman College; he was made a saint in 1726.

Biography
Aloysius Gonzaga was the eldest of seven children; his mother was a lady-in-waiting to Queen Elisabeth of Valois of Spain. He was first in line to inherit the Marquisate of Castiglione from his father, and his father assumed that he would grow up to be a soldier; Aloysius witnessed the murder of two of his brothers during the violence and brutality of Renaissance Italy. In 1576, he was sent to the court of the Medici in Florence for his education, and he took a private vow of chastity at the age of 9 after reading about the saints while he was sick. After returning to Castiglione, he met Cardinal Charles Borromeo, and he became a teacher of catechism classes for young boys in the summers. He also adopted an ascetic lifestyle, visiting the houses of friars in the winter. In 1585, he gave up all rights of inheritance after a dispute with his family over his desire to become a missionary, and he joined the Society of Jesus in 1585. In 1587, he took the vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience, and, while in Rome in 1590, he was said to have received a vision from the archangel Gabriel that he would die within a year. In 1591, a plague broke out in Rome, and Aloysius carried the dying into Jesuit hospitals, washed and fed the plague victims, and worked hard to overcome his physical repulsion. Aloysius himself fell sick with fever and died on 21 June 1591, predicting that he would die that same day. He was beatified in 1605 and canonized in 1726.